09/12/2008

A concerted effort by President Dmitry Medvedev and other top officials to bolster nervy Russian markets failed to impress investors Thursday, despite his pledge that the government would step in with extra funds to plug growing liquidity shortfalls.

Vladimir Semchenko unloaded his latest booty on a table Thursday at the Central Armed Forces Museum: a soldier’s helmet, canteen and flashlight, as well as a notebook with a Georgian flag on the cover. On the metal helmet someone had scratched “Georgia 10.08.08.” in Russian.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Thursday gave a heated defense of Russia’s military actions against Georgia last month but told a gathering of foreign policy experts that Moscow is not seeking a new Cold War.